Welcome! Come to Boston to meet Kat Cavicchio in my new e-book House of Cards available through Amazon on Kindle and supported devices!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Writers on Autism Follow UpThank you to photographer Christopher Zach for donating his time and talent and for not zooming in on a close up.....

This is my handsome husband Mark, who served as driver, hand holder, and biggest fan.

This is John Robison (in the orange shirt) with Barbara Fischkin's strapping son, Dan heading out for a break. Barbara's husband, Jim Mulvaney is seated and wearing the red shirt.

John wowed the group and parents were dying to hear more from him since he's like a "translator" for those us whose kids do not speak. It's got to be a heavy responsibility for him. I hope we don't overwhelm him with our badgering.

For you writers: If you look waaaay in the back you can barely see a head of black hair, sort of just under Dan's chin. That's Janet Reid, who blew me away by attending the event to hear me speak. Do NOT ask the inevitable question. The answer is no. NO. NO. NO. (Nitwits, you understand me, yes?) My agent, Eric Myers, also attended to support me. Joy!

Michelle Pierce Burns read about her intense love for her son, Danson. Michelle is a dear friend of a certain legendary comedian and educator, Dr. Bill Cosby (hey hey hey!) She has a jubiliant radiance when she speaks about her son.

Several authors had books available there but were not present. Including the book shown, Ralph Savarese's story of how he and his wife adopted a child with autism out of the foster care system. How's this for a small world? He just signed with The Spieler Agency, which is also my literary agency. I hope to meet Ralph and his son DJ one day soon. His site is http://ralphsavarese.com/.

Landon Napoleon read from his book ZigZag, which became a movie featuring one of my favorite actors, Wesley Snipes (hunkasaurus rex.)

Landon knew nothing about autism or Asperger's, yet wrote a character who was immediately identified as having HFA or Asp - he nailed it.

Susan Senator, writer and Autism Mom and honorary Iron Workers of America union member thanks to her "bridge building" abilities wasn't able to attend but her book was on sale too. http://www.susansenator.com/. You can bet she'll headline at our Boston event.

That's a quick recap of some of the night. Oh, my husband was also official book buyer - I came home with four new books to read.

It sounds like the evening was a success. I've added the books you noted to my list to read this fall when I start writing my 4th novel, which has a cognitively challenged main character (maybe he'll be autistic ?? don't know) I need to become better informed either way.

I also think it's wonderful that you're planning other events like this one. I wish your goup was coming to my area! I'd drag a crowd out to hear you speak.